Savoury Cheese & Spring Onion Scones. Gluten Free.

If I’m completely honest with you, the words ‘scone’ and ‘savoury’ don’t really mix in my world. When it comes to a scone, I’m all over the classic Devonshire Tea version; smothered in raspberry jam and whipped cream. Or maybe, these beauties with honey and raisins.

But, there are moments in ones life when one must expand ones culinary tastes, (sound posh don’t I?). Faced with a bread-less house on soup night, plus a bunch of spring onions the size of a small child, I put my scone snobbery aside and came up with these cheesy, crunchy on top, but soft in the middle, dinner scones. When dunked in hot pumpkin soup, these scones make toast soldiers look so last year. Cheese & Spring Onion scones, you’ve won me over.

NB: if you’re not gluten free then replace the same quantity of gluten free flour with regular self raising flour and omit the baking soda.

Ingredients:

(makes 8 large scones or 16 small scones)

225g gluten free self raising flour

1/2 teaspoon baking soda (omit if not baking gluten free)

1/2 teaspoon mustard powder (check for gluten and substitute with cayenne pepper or similar if required)

Method:

You can use a bowl and the ‘rub in the butter’ method here, but I find that loathsome, so use my food processor.

Sift the flour, baking soda and mustard powder into the bowl of a food processor and pulse until the mix resembles fine breadcrumbs.

Add the cheese and continue to pulse until it’s incorporated into the flour and butter. Leaving some chunky bits is fine.

Pour the flour mix into a large bowl.

Add the spring onions, 2 beaten eggs and the yoghurt and mix well to combine.

Give a wooden board or work bench a good covering of flour and turn out the soft dough.

Knead for about 1 minute.

Shape with your hands into a 2cm disc and, using a greased and floured round biscuit cutter of your desired size (or the rim of a glass works well too), cut as many scones as you can, placing them on the baking sheet. Bring any scraps together and continue to cut rounds. Inevitably, you’ll be left with a small ball of dough that can be shaped by hand into a mini scone (perfect for taste testing as soon as it comes out of the oven!)

Brush well with the third beaten egg (this is the key in gluten free cooking to get a golden colour on breads etc), and sprinkle with sesame seeds and sea salt.

Bake for 25 minutes.

Allow to cool a little and serve either along side a lovely bowl of soup, or, on their own, with a swipe of butter or chilli relish!

Store in an airtight container for up to a week. The scones will definitely need a quick warm up before serving. To freeze, allow to cool completely and then place in a ziplock bag and freeze for up to 2 months. Thaw on the counter at room temperature and warm in the oven before serving.